Bubble columns for condensation at high concentrations of noncondensable gas: Heat‐transfer model and experiments

Carrier gas based thermodynamic cycles are common in water desalination applications. These cycles often require condensation of water vapor out of the carrier gas stream. As the carrier gas is most likely a noncondensable gas present in very high concentrations (60–95%), a large additional resistance to heat transfer is present. It is proposed to reduce the aforementioned thermal resistance by condensing the vapor–gas mixture in a column of cold liquid rather than on a cold surface using a bubble column heat exchanger. A theoretical predictive model for estimating the heat‐transfer rates and new experimental data to validate this model are described. The model is purely physics based without the need for any adjustable parameters, and it is shown to predict heat rates within 0 to ?20% of the experimental values. The experiments demonstrate that heat‐transfer rates in the proposed device are up to an order magnitude higher than those achieved in existing state‐of‐the‐art dehumidifiers. © 2012 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 59: 1780–1790, 2013     

The potential of a renewable energy technology for rural electrification in Nepal: A case study from Tangting

Nepal, one of the least developed countries, is characterized by low per capita energy consumption and hugely dominated by traditional energy sources. Despite having enormous potential of hydro-electricity, only 50% of the total population has access to grid electricity. Firewood is the primary energy source for domestic purposes in rural environments. Due to geographical remoteness, a scattered consumer, higher costs of supply and maintenance, low consumption and low level of households’ income linking the rural areas to national electricity grid is difficult and implausible. In order to solve the energy problem in rural areas, Nepal’s government has initiated the production and distribution of several renewable energy technologies. Among several renewable technologies, micro-hydropower has been one of the most promising and widely adopted decentralized technologies to distribute electricity in rural areas. This article begins with a general overview of energy situation in Nepal. Present status and perspective of micro-hydro plants have also been discussed. Similarly, the dynamics of the relationship between electricity and socio-economic development has been analyzed by means of a typical rural electrification project in Tangting, Nepal by assessing the impacts of electricity on health, education, environment, and income in the village. The community has greatly benefitted from the arrival of environment friendly and affordable electricity. It has been concluded that the task of providing electricity to more remote and isolated villages is still challenging in Nepal. More systematic and comprehensive study supported by research and development is required to extend micro-hydro based electricity in more remote and poor communities of Nepal.     

Microwave oven radiation hazards

This paper presents the results of a survey on the radiation leakage from a representative sample of microwave ovens in Regina. A brief review of potential hazards of microwave radiation is presented and the results of the survey are analyzed with a view of initiating further research in this area.     

Performance of cold sprayed Ni‐20Cr and Ni‐50Cr coatings on SA 516 steel in actual industrial environment of a coal fired boiler

Power plants are one of the major industries suffering from severe erosion–corrosion (E‐C) problems resulting in substantial losses. One way of tackling this problem is by the use of thermal spray coatings. In the current investigation a new emerging technique i.e. cold spray coating process was used to deposit Ni‐20Cr and Ni‐50Cr powder on SA 516 (grade 70) boiler steel. The bare as well as the coated steels were subjected to cyclic experimental studies, in the superheater zone of a coal fired boiler. Weight change, thickness loss, XRD, FE‐SEM/EDS and X‐ray mapping techniques were used to analyse the eroded‐corroded specimens. The uncoated steel showed weight gain after exposure in the actual boiler environment, whereas, for the coated steels there was initial weight loss followed by negligible weight change. Based upon thickness loss data the cold‐sprayed Ni‐50Cr coating was found to provide better E‐C resistance than the Ni‐20Cr coating.     

Adaptive Congestion Controller for ABR Traffic in ATM Network

One of the imperatives for improving the quality-of-service (QoS) of high-speed networks of next generation is to reduce congestion. Congestion occurs when the resource demand exceeds the capacity of the network. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the performance of Robust Adaptive Congestion Control algorithm for available bit rate traffic in asynchronous transfer mode networks and suggest improvements of the algorithm for better performance and fairness. The results of simulation presented here corroborates the fact that the improved algorithm reduces settling time and cell loss ratio and thus maximizes utilization of the network.     

Evaluation of Thermocyclic Oxidation Behavior of HVOF-Sprayed NiCrFeSiB Coatings on Boiler Tube Steels

High velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) spray process has grown into a well-accepted industrial technology for obtaining coatings resistant to significant surface degradation processes. In the present study, HVOF process was used to deposit Ni-based hardfacing NiCrFeSiB alloy powder on kinds of boiler tube steels designated as SA210 grade-A1, SA213-T11, and SA213-T22. The microstructures and several properties of the as-sprayed coatings have been investigated. Thermocyclic oxidation studies were performed in static air at 900 °C. NiCrFeSiB-coated steels showed slow oxidation kinetics and considerably lower weight gains than that of uncoated steels. The superior performance of NiCrFeSiB coatings can be attributed to continuous and protective thin oxide scale of amorphous SiO₂ and Cr₂O₃ formed on the surface of the oxidized coatings. The combined technique of x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive x-ray analysis, and electron probe microanalysis are used to characterize reaction products of the oxidized surfaces.     

Guest–host interaction in ferroelectric liquid crystal–nanoparticle composite system

The present paper deals with the characterization of a ferroelectric liquid crystal–nanoparticle (FLC–NP) composite system. The dielectric, electrical and polarization property of the FLC–NP composite system have been studied as a function of temperature and frequency. Ferroelectric Cu-doped ZnO (Cu–ZnO) nanoparticles have been added to the pure ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) Felix 17/100. The nanoparticles are bigger in size as compared to FLC molecules; therefore, they distort the existing geometry of FLC matrix and set up an antiparallel correlation with the dipole moments of the host FLC molecules. This antiparallel correlation of guest–host geometry reduces the net ferroelectricity of the composite system and modifies all the physical properties of the pure FLC. The change in properties has been analysed and explained in the light of guest–host interaction.